Defending the Accused: The Impact of Legal Representation on Criminal Trial Outcomes in Victoria, Australia 1861–1961

Piper, A; Finnane, M

Defending the Accused: The Impact of Legal Representation on Criminal Trial Outcomes in Victoria, Australia 1861–1961

Piper, A

Finnane, M

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Journal of Legal History, 2017, 38 (1), pp. 27 - 53
Issue Date:: 2017-01-02

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Piper, A https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9369-5862	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Finnane, M	en_US
dc.date.issued	2017-01-02	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Journal of Legal History, 2017, 38 (1), pp. 27 - 53	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0144-0365	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/123645
dc.description.abstract	© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Access to legal representation by accused felons was entrenched as part of the adversarial system from the early nineteenth century, but a substantial minority of defendants remained undefended at superior court level well into the twentieth century. Using a sample of criminal trials collected across a crucial hundred-year period that saw the development of incipient legal assistance schemes, this article seeks to examine what effect the presence of defence counsel had on individual trial results. It is shown that there was a significant association between defence status and a variety of outcomes, including pleas, verdicts, trial length, bail status and sentencing. This relationship was to some extent affected by the specific offence with which the accused was charged, but remains evident across various other factors, including defendant ethnicity, sex, occupation and age, and lawyer assigned to the case. The results suggest that representation was highly desirable for defendants throughout this period.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Journal of Legal History	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.1080/01440365.2017.1289673	en_US
dc.title	Defending the Accused: The Impact of Legal Representation on Criminal Trial Outcomes in Victoria, Australia 1861–1961	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	1	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	38	en_US
utslib.for	1801 Law	en_US
utslib.for	2103 Historical Studies	en_US
utslib.for	2202 History and Philosophy of Specific Fields	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Social and Political Sciences Program
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.issue	1	en_US
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US
pubs.volume	38	en_US

Abstract:

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Access to legal representation by accused felons was entrenched as part of the adversarial system from the early nineteenth century, but a substantial minority of defendants remained undefended at superior court level well into the twentieth century. Using a sample of criminal trials collected across a crucial hundred-year period that saw the development of incipient legal assistance schemes, this article seeks to examine what effect the presence of defence counsel had on individual trial results. It is shown that there was a significant association between defence status and a variety of outcomes, including pleas, verdicts, trial length, bail status and sentencing. This relationship was to some extent affected by the specific offence with which the accused was charged, but remains evident across various other factors, including defendant ethnicity, sex, occupation and age, and lawyer assigned to the case. The results suggest that representation was highly desirable for defendants throughout this period.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/123645